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An hour or so later, England surely scented a shot at redemption. Lawrence\u2019s try had reduced the deficit to 29-14, with a yellow card for the Ireland full back Jamie Osborne presenting a window for the home team to save themselves, or at least set up a nervy finish.<\/p>\n
It was at this point that Steve Borthwick<\/a> opted to replace his figurehead. Itoje has been England\u2019s marathon man. His capacity to endure the entirety of Test matches was outlined as a key reason why he succeeded Jamie George as captain, because the latter had been splitting shifts 50-30 with Luke Cowan-Dickie.<\/p>\n If it had been jarring to see Itoje leave the field before the final quarter against Scotland, this reinforced a suspicion that the 31-year-old remained short of full fitness. Borthwick acknowledged as much afterwards, explaining that his captain was \u201cin very good condition\u201d yet still developing his \u201csharpness\u201d, having only appeared in three matches for Saracens since November.<\/p>\n Itoje missed the beginning of England\u2019s pre-tournament camp in Girona, Spain to attend the funeral of his mother, Florence, in Nigeria. In a typically eloquent interview with the BBC\u2019s Rugby Union Weekly podcast, he admitted that it felt like he had missed \u201ca lot more\u201d than two days of training because of how much the squad had \u201cmoved forward\u201d.<\/p>\n England\u2019s breakdown was better with Itoje on the pitch<\/p>\n JAVIER GARCIA\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n Borthwick will have thought long and hard about how to look after Itoje, who has been comforted by his Christian faith. Everyone confronts grief differently, but it can be emotionally exhausting. And then you factor in wider context. The first competitive game of Itoje\u2019s 2024-25 season took place on September 21 at Kingsholm. The last was on August 2, almost 11 months later, for the British & Irish Lions<\/a> in Sydney.<\/p>\n As noted by The Telegraph, Itoje has accumulated more than 1,000 minutes of Test rugby union more than anyone else on the planet since his debut a decade ago. He is in uncharted territory.<\/p>\n Last week, many paid tribute to Itoje\u2019s remarkable consistency. He occasionally becomes a victim of this high bar, with merely decent displays going unappreciated because they feature fewer eye-catching moments. Against Wales at home, Borthwick started Ollie Chessum and Alex Coles in England\u2019s engine room with Itoje among the replacements.<\/p>\n That went well enough. Coles and Chessum collaborated effectively as a partnership. Itoje\u2019s yellow card, within seconds of joining the fray because England were on a team warning, was just a minor inconvenience. The choice of whether to promote Itoje to the starting XV for Scotland was perhaps a more pertinent call.<\/p>\n Put yourself in the shoes of both men. Itoje feels ownership over this side and will have been itching for a more central role. Borthwick had reason to trust that Itoje could cope with starting and would return to form. You can be certain that England\u2019s conditioning gurus, Dan Tobin and Phil Morrow, will have pored over Itoje\u2019s GPS numbers from training and compared them to previous markers.<\/p>\n He may still be returning to peak sharpness but Itoje\u2019s strengths in the lineout remain<\/p>\n SIMON KING\/PROSPORTS\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n By the eye test, Itoje looked sluggish at Murrayfield. But it was certainly unfair to blame him for Huw Jones\u2019s first try, when he found himself scrambling across from the edge of the defensive line after Tom Roebuck had shot up in vain to pressurise Finn Russell<\/a>. Just as with Ellis Genge sprinting to dive on a loose ball later in the first half, this was a forward firefighting in a dire situation.<\/p>\n Itoje, who has only conceded a single penalty this championship, holds himself to impeccable standards. He will have been frustrated with England\u2019s early lineout woes on Saturday, even if they eased once George had relieved Cowan-Dickie at hooker. \u00ad\u00ad\u00adAcross the first three rounds Itoje is tackling more (completing 13 per 80 minutes compared to 10.6) and carrying more (7.4 times per 80 minutes compared to 5.2) than he did over last season\u2019s Six Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n His big assets have always been lineout jumping and defensive disruption. In phase attack, he is more of a facilitator. According to Stats Perform, Itoje is averaging a massive 32.2 attacking ruck arrivals per 80 minutes in this Six Nations. Stats Perform estimates that he has been effective at 88.5 per cent of these arrivals. Again, these figures are up on the 2025 Six Nations (28.4 attacking rucks at 70.4 per cent effectiveness).<\/p>\n England\u2019s breakdown has been scruffy over the past two games, yet truly capitulated in a flurry of Ireland jackal turnovers after Itoje had gone off. When Itoje is on the scene, he tends to clear ruck threats. He was integral to more strong scrummaging and the carnage largely occurred away from him, in the aerial battle and then out in the back line. Of course, he will reflect on how he might have rallied his troops to stop a downward spiral that spun into a 22-0 hole. Dan Sheehan\u2019s try, Ireland\u2019s fourth, encapsulated the difference in bite between the two packs. <\/p>\n There is a valid argument for him taking a summer sabbatical from England duty when Borthwick\u2019s charges bounce between Johannesburg, Liverpool and Santiago del Estero in northern Argentina on their Nations Championship schedule.<\/p>\n Here is the counterpoint: these past two matches have been reminiscent of the 2018 Six Nations and the 2023 World Cup warm-ups; horribly difficult campaigns that led to something brighter. Itoje was part of both, and is now in a position to lean on those experiences, calmly consolidate and ensure that England \u2014 his England \u2014 get back on track in Rome. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maro Itoje\u2019s 100th England cap began with a hint that he might be returning to his sharpest. Seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-442930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tadhg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/70d91176-9f9e-4b7a-beaf-60aae9845533.jpg\")
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